Freezing Breastmilk

I use the Medella system and I have experienced the same thing. My son would not drink the milk and I can't blame him, it did taste different. It wasn't bad just thawed and freezer tasting? Sorry I dont have any advise I just wanted you to know that I experienced it and with a different system. Good luck.

The same thing happened to wife's milk. It is likely that you have too much of a certain enzyme (I forget the name of it, sorry). It breaks down the milk faster. We spoke to a lactation consultant and she said it was common, maybe in 10-20% of women's milk, but there is very little you can do about it.

I would google it if you don't have a good lactation consultant nearby. We didn't go to far with figuring out solutions as it was not a big deal with my wife's job.

les.

Same thing happened with me. I think it has to do with proteins breaking down or something. I used the Medela storage bags.

I can't say I noticed this with my milk storage, but I haven't sniffed it either... so now I am curious and will. :)
Anyway, I store my little baggies inside larger gallon size freezer bags in the freezer. I don't know if that would help?

I tried pumping and freezing too and had the same problem. The milk would smell and taste sour or simply off - definitely a weird freezer smell - but only after thawing it, never after storing in the fridge. Apparently it hasn't gone bad, it simply has a protein breakdown, or too much of a certain kind of enzyme (already mentioned by someone else). I know someone who would dilute the frozen/thawed milk with some she had pumped that day and her baby would drink it that way. We never bothered with that and simply pumped/expressed milk the day before or the day that we actually needed it and stored it in the fridge. This made it less convenient to go out whenever we wanted to and our baby didn't much like a bottle, but exclusively breastfeeding him has been the best thing and worth the sacrifice.
Maybe a lactation consultant would have some suggestions or ideas.

Hi D.,

The culprit is Lipase in the breast milk.

heat milk after pumping to scalding, not boiling, and quickly cool it to inactivate the lipase.

http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/nursing/grosstasting.html

hope this helps. D.

I exclusively pumped milk for one year with each of my kids & always had the freezer full of back-up milk. It didn't matter what storage containers I used, the milk did have a different smell,which is normal, & it never bothered the kids.

Hello. I had the same problem but the baby always drank it happily. I used the 'First Years' zip lock bags for BRU that worked well. After the milk froze, I then moved the bag to a freezer bag to try and help against the freezer burn. I was also told to keep it in the back of the freezer so when you opened it for other stuff, the milk didn't get a blast of warm air. If it smelled really bad, I use to taste it to see if it was palatable so I ultimately ended up throwing a few out but was better than giving a baby bad milk. If you haven't had a problem feeding it to the baby, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Hey D.,
My milk has a kind of "soapy" smell to it sometimes. I thought it was bad but I asked LLL people and they told me that it means my milk has too much of the enzyme lipase in it. I was throwing it out and thought it was bad but that's not the case- there's nothing wrong with it as long as your baby doesn't refuse it. It doesn't happen to fresh milk, it only happens to milk that is stored in the refrigerator but mostly in the freezer. Something happens to the fat in your milk when you freeze it. You can google it and find all sorts of information on it. Breastmilk does pick up the odors in the freezer as well so you may want to pick up some baking soda and put it in the freezer.
Good Luck!
P.

That's pretty normal. As long as you follow the guidelines, it is still perfectly fine to use & you do NOT need to throw it out or anything.
Just make sure that you always put it in the back of your freezer, since it stays coldest (and therefor, will be freshest) back there.

You may want to try using storage ziplock baggies (Lansinoh has a great one and they're less expensive than Medela). Force all of the air out of the bag before zipping it. It may help to keep it from spoiling too quickly by keeping the oxygen out; same concept as vaccuum packing.

Hope this helps!

Absolutely the same "freezer smell". My pediatrician said ti was normal and my daughter never had a problem with the frozen milk. I found it best to store in the ziplock bags (Medela) so I could get all of the air out and prevent any freezer burn. we also bought a separate deep freezer because I had so much excess milk to minimize opening and closing of the freezer.

D. G. When I breastfeed my babies which was a long time ago I also used the drop in bags for the bottles but I stored them in a freezer bag besides the bottle liners. That way they were double protected from freezer burn. You can store a couple of bags in each gallon freezer back and just pull out what you need when you need it. Deep freezing you can store longer so there is more concern about freezer burn. I dont recall any order problem. Good luck